Isaac Newton

In 1642, the very same year of Galileo’s death, Isaac Newton was born. He was born tiny, and weak, and unexpected to live long, and left by his mother to stay with his maternal grandmother so his mom could remarry. Isaac never met his prosperous farming father due to his death three months before Isaac’s birth. These events in his early life are said to have influenced him majorly. At twelve Newton was enrolled at King’s School in Grantham, where he was staying at an apothecary and learning of chemistry. When reunited with his mother she pulled him out so he could farm, but it did not suit him. Soon he was sent back to Kings School, then slowly made his way to Cambridge. At twenty-three Newton was a mathematician at Cambridge University. He left Cambridge due to a plague, for protection of his health. Newton made very many important discoveries. He said that a red object appears red because it reflects red light and absorbs all other colors in sunlight. This was proved when he passed light through a prism. Arguably Newton’s most important discovery was gravity. A falling apple was used to explain how gravity works. He said because of gravity the earth pulls a falling object toward itself. He explained that big objects have a greater attractive force than smaller ones, and that the sun’s strong gravity kept the planets traveling in their orbits, and that’s why we hold to the spinning earth. Isaac Newton showed that we could predict a pattern for all objects in the universe; a predictable pattern in science is a scientific law. His Universal Law proved that the same physical laws applied to the earth and the heavens. When Newton published a book about his ideas scientists became excited. His law showed order and logic to the universe. The scientific method, mathematics, and human reasoning became powerful tools for unlocking earth’s secrets. People knew Isaac Newton was a genius.